Nightmare in Silver

Neil Gaiman last wrote for show back in season 6 with The Doctor's Wife, a clever and interesting story where the Doctor finally gets to talk to his beloved TARDIS. However, his return to Doctor Who was rather underwhelming.

Nightmare in Silver sees the Doctor, Clara and the children she babysits (Angie and Artie) on what should have been a crazy fun adventure for the kids. However, disappointment and annoying children soon ensue when the promise of the biggest theme park in the universe basically turns out to be a pile of scrap metal - rides abandoned and in a complete state of disrepair.

They first meet Mr Webley who used to run the World of Wonders. Among his wax figures and statues is a 'magical' chess-playing Cyberman - who turns out to be controlled by Porridge (Warwick Davis). After the slow start, things start to get interesting when we first glimpse the little cybermites, the upgraded version of the cybermat. Cyber technology upgrades are the basis of this episode. When some 3 million Cybermen attack the poorly defended planet, even their most advanced weapons (which totalled an entire six) quickly became obsolete. Apparently their technology has advanced so much since we last saw them that they can be upgraded instantly. Their intelligence seems to have been upgraded too. Once they were the ultimate soldier, advancing on their enemy with no fear of death. Now they're laying traps and looking for more creative, intelligent people to further their advancement.

This doesn't go down too well for the Doctor. His Timelord intelligence was of course an attraction for the Cybermen, who began the upgrading process on the Doctor. He wasn't going to give up that easily, however, and the long, internal battle for the control of the Doctor's mind begins. Matt Smith really seems to get better and better each week. He switched between the two character's with such perfection and ease, making it by far the best and most captivating part of the episode.

Clara also had quite a good role this week, though I still don't find her all that amazing. She took control of the punishment platoon quite well and I think we finally got to see what she can do. To be honest, though, I think she is still quite one-dimensional. And seriously, can we not start a whole other love story for the Doctor PLEASE? With Rose, it was great. Even Martha's unrequited love was interesting and I think she was all the more strong for it. River has annoyed the crap out of me since forever and there was always some flirting with the Doctor and Amy. So can the Doctor and Clara just be friends, is it really that hard? /endrant

Oh wait, I forgot to mention how annoying and pointless Angie and Artie were. Thank god they were kinda just left to the side for most of the episode. /actualendrant

The episode also raised some good future plots, most notably the Doctor-sized hole in history. Not such a subtle way of erasing yourself was it, Doctor? I hope that is actually explored though. Not just casually mentioned later on as being 'fixed' or just completely solved with a push of a button, which seems to be the trend lately. Even Nightmare in Silver was solved with a quick teleportation away from the exploding planet. Oh how I want a suspenseful two-part episode with a complex/exciting ending. 

Rating: 7.5/10

Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments :D